1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates to firearms and, more specifically, to methods and apparatus for assisting the aiming of firearms, and in particular to methods and apparatus for assisting the aiming of firearms with a light beam.
2. Disclosure Statement
This disclosure statement is made pursuant to the duty of disclosure imposed by law and formulated in 37 CFR 1.56(a). No representation is hereby made that information thus disclosed in fact constitutes prior art, inasmuch as 37 CFR 1.56(a) relies on a materiality concept which depends on uncertain and inevitably subjective elements of substantial likelihood and reasonableness, and inasmuch as a growing attitude appears to require citation of material which might lead to a discovery of pertinent material. though not necessarily being of itself pertinent. Also, the following comments contain conclusions and observations which have only been drawn or become apparent after conception of the subject invention or which contrast the subject invention or its merits against the background of developments which may be subsequent in time or priority.
For over eighty years, proposals have been made for assisting the aiming of firearms with light beams or light spots on targets. Reference may, for instance, be had to U.S. Pat. Nos. 689,547, 894,306, 1,149,705, 1,452,651, 1,826,004, 1,993,979, 2,017,585, 2,844,710 and 2,912,566, proposing clampling a flashlight or incandescent lamp with lens, reflector arrangement and on-off switch or trigger switch and external or internal battery to a handgun, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,010,019 and 3,974,585, British Pat. No. 5029, Swiss Pat. Nos. 29,708 and 66,753, French Pat. No. 1,015,421, and German Patent Publication No. 1,926,337, which also propose employment of electric incandescent lamps for providing aiming marks on firearm targets or on an optical sight.
Further proposals were spawned by the development of laser diodes comparable in size and ruggedness to small incandescent light bulbs as may be seen from U.S. Pat. No. 3,867,764. The utility of laser diodes as aiming devices was, however, generally limited to marksmanship trainer, boresight alignment, weapon simulator and similar applications, as may, for instance, be seen from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,633,285, 3,782,832, 3,898,747, 3,938,262 and 3,995,376. An infrared-light hit indicator apparatus is apparent from U.S. Pat. No. 3,104,478, and an electronic target game from U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,401.
The success of gas discharge lasers spawned proposals to use that type of laser in weapon aiming systems, as apparent from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,026,054, 4,079,534, 4,152,754, 4,161,076, 4,168,588 and 4,212,109. Laser weapon simulators have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,243,896 and 3,447,033.
Further references include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,427,042, 2,085,732 and 2,597,565 disclosing methods of completing the electric circuit when the flashlight element is added, U.S. Pat. No. 2,209,524 showing flashlight holders engaging a recess in a flashlight body or providing a transverse pin between spaced pistol grip bars for flashlight mounting purposes, U.S. Pat. No. 2,314,061 disclosing a tongue-type flashlight mounting, U.S. Pat. No. 2,450,584 for flashlight attachment for small arms, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,222,511 and 4,542,447 showing dual switching means and mounting systems for flashlights on firearms, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,167 disclosing also remote switching means for firearm-mounted lighting units.
Advanced laser beam aim assistance systems have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,313,272 and 273 issued to the subject common assignee. While these systems perform excellently, they naturally are rather expensive and therefore beyond the reach of many police departments or citizens.